Pottstown kindergarten student wanders away from school, parent upset

POTTSTOWN — A mother is shocked her 6-year-old daughter wandered away from the front of Lincoln Elementary School after being dropped off without anyone noticing.

Christa Orfield said her daughter could be seen running away on the school’s surveillance camera footage after a van from the Dotlen Academy dropped her off at the school from day care on June 3.

“Right from the sidewalk, she got off the van from morning care, immediately ran across the camera, across the school entrance, then went off camera,” Orfield told The Mercury last week.

Eventually, a person who lives in proximity to the school said she saw a little girl in the school uniform down around Fourth Street, at least four blocks away from Lincoln Elementary School.

According to John Armato, a spokesman for the Pottstown School District who spoke with The Mercury Monday, a Lincoln secretary went out and brought the girl back around 9:20 a.m.

The Pottstown Police school resource officer, David Mull, was contacted immediately.

Pottstown Police Capt. Robert Thomas said his department’s investigation determined the girl was missing for 35 minutes.

According to both Orfield and Armato, the little girl told a few different stories about why she had been missing and what happened when she was gone, including that she was chasing butterflies and that she’d gone with a man named Pop-Pop.

Orfield said Pop-Pop is her daughter’s grandfather but that they thought the girl could have been talking about “someone who looked like him.”

The story that seemed to have the most truth to it, according to Thomas and Armato, involved the girl following a woman walking a dog.

“The child told (Mull) she saw a woman walking a dog (and) when the woman left, she kind of followed the woman in the car driving away,” Thomas said.

“The principal and the other staff (at Lincoln) did an excellent job recognizing there was a dog and there is a parent who brings a dog with them when they drop their student off,” Armato said.

Orfield’s daughter then never returned to the school, either because she was lost, confused, or otherwise.

Because she works, Orfield said she drops her daughter off at the Dotlen Academy before school for day care. The Dotlen Academy then takes the students, via a van, to school.

Armato said Dotlen Academy is not affiliated with the school district at all but is a private entity that drops the kids off, the same as if a parent or guardian drove their child to school.

A staff person is assigned to the front of the school to watch the students come in.

“That particular day was raining so that person on duty was bringing youngster into the building at the time the van dropped off,” Armato said. “She did not see the student exit the van or go across the street.”

The van driver from Dotlen Academy never watched the girl in to the school, Orfield said. It’s unclear if the van drove away before the children were inside or if the driver was distracted with something else and missed Orfield’s daughter running away.

When called, an employee for Dotlen Academy in Pottstown said there is a policy in place that prevents them from talking to reporters. A message left with the main office in Norristown was not returned.

Since Dotlen Academy is not affiliated with the school district, it was not known that Orfield’s daughter was expected, so she was marked absent, like any child that doesn’t come in to school.

Only when the resident called the school was it realized that the girl was missing and not absent.

Further communication between the district and day cares like Dotlen Academy is possible in the future in light of what happened June 3.

“This incident has caused us to debrief all of our procedures and review how we might be able to prevent this situation from happening in the future,” Armato said.

Orfield said she was not contacted by the district until after 4 p.m.

Armato said the district tried contacting her via several different numbers they had available but none were current or could reach her. Eventually, they were able to find the one they used to get in touch with her in the late afternoon.

After that, around 4:45 p.m., Orfield called the Pottstown Police. Their investigation included using the school’s surveillance footage.

Thomas said it was determined that “nothing criminal” happened in the incident and the investigation is closed.

Orfield said she’s talked with her daughter about not wandering away before.

“We’ve got a code word,” she said. “We did ‘stranger danger.’”

Ultimately, she said she’s upset with what happened and is looking into possibly getting a lawyer and her daughter into counseling. She also said she’s pulling her daughter from school.

“I feel like the day care failed to get her to school,” Orfield said. “I feel like the school failed to contact me and show any concern.”